Holiday of Love . . . Unrequited

Unrequited love, oh yes, we've all felt its sting.

When your friends point out that you're crushing on your straight neighbor or co-worker, do you deny it? Worse yet, do you inwardly swoon from that celebratory slap on the ass that gets you all worked up, when your obviously heterosexual tennis buddy just can't seem to contain his excitement in the win. What if the tables were turned?

I'm uncertain how the majority of heterosexuals would react if their Gay or Bi friend made a pass or let a fragment of what one was feeling slip. I could only hope it would be favorably . . . indifferent, at best, though I have my own experiences to prove otherwise.

I think my self-proclaimed "straight boy" is the exception. At least, I'm proud of his actions and reactions in the face of such advances. One recent event had me a bit troubled for the "other guy," though. Seems our Zack is quite the charmer.

Out of three adult boys . . . I guess, that would be, young men . . . Zack ended up straight (poor thing). But that hasn't slowed the onslaught of wanna-be beaus. I just didn't realize he was so desirable to such a wide array of candidates, until I discovered "the love letter". Seems, one of his best friends from high school has taken a liking to Zack, and unlike me (and I'm sure, many of you), this friend is far from, shall we say . . . shy about his intentions.

"You have a boyfriend?!" It's not every day that your straight son shows you a love letter from a guy; I had to ask.

"Another wanna-be," he told me.

"You have more than one chasing you?"

"Well . . . yeah. Just not all guys."

"Oh."

To speed things up, Zack informed me that he wanted to let the guy down easy, because he didn't want to hurt his feelings. I thought that was kind of lame, but to each his own way. Come to find out, the young man in question is one of Zack's best friends and Zack did not want to stop being friends, just wasn't sexually interested in the guy.

"What are you going to do, then?"

"Dunno," he told me, matter of factly.

"So . . . think maybe you're--"

"No. He's just a really nice guy. I'm straight."

"Okay."

Anyway, Zack spent the good part of the last month and a half on the phone every night with his friend/wanna-be more-than-friend. I did question whether or not he thought he was doing the right thing by not being straightforward as I'd hate for him to lead the guy on only to crush his feelings in the end. Zack assured me he was handling the situation the best way he saw fit.

In the end, Zack's friend came out of the ordeal unscathed--almost. "I'll just have to get over you, I guess" were his friend's words--or so Zack informed me later.

"Still friends?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"You handled that well," I told him. "Weirded out by it or anything?" My curiosity to know what was going on inside got to me.

"Nah," he said. "I look at it like this: I got both girls and guys chasing me."

"Yeah?"

"I must be that good."

My only thought: Well, the apple certainly didn't fall far from the tree there.

Anyway, here's a little candy I snagged online (can't remember where, but if you recognize it, give me a shout so I can credit you).

Have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Bryl R. Tyne is a wrangler by nature and a writer by choice, published with Noble Romance Publishing, Ravenous Romance, Dreamspinner Press, and STARbooks Press. You can find out more about Bryl at: bryltyne.com

This post is X-posted to The Rainbow Studio and Defying Description.